From Turtle Island to Palestine

Station 1: Manifest Destiny and Zionism as Colonialism

This first station will start out with a little history lesson. Knowing not just what came before us, but why it happened in the first place is crucial to avoid repeating past mistakes. 

Genocide is an ongoing process. It is overt, official military sanctioned warfare. We saw this in what has been called the Indian Wars or the American Frontier Wars that started during early American colonization to the 1800s. We saw this in 1948, when the Israeli military carried out the Nakba or the ethnic cleansing and displacement of half of the Palestinian population of the time. 

These overt military campaigns often didn’t start as official military campaigns. Instead, most of the violence is started by settlers. The Homestead Act of 1862 encouraged Westward expansion of US settlers– expansion is another way of saying that settlers do the dirty work of the US government in violently expelling Native communities from their homelands. The Nakba, which means “catastrophe” in Arabic, started in the same way… paramilitary groups played a crucial role in starting the violent expulsion of Indigenous Palestinians from their homelands in 1948.

But how is this overt warfare on people and lands justified? In the United States, what is known as the doctrine of discovery was used to justify the legal taking of Indigenous lands. Yes you heard that right. Legal. The Doctrine of Discovery comes from centuries old orders from the Catholic Pope for colonizers to take Indigenous lands to spread Christianity. And in the 1800s, the Supreme Court used the doctrine to officially claim these lands. The religious symbolism would go on to create what is known as Manifest Destiny, or the idea that it is a god-given right for Americans to take control of all of North America. We see Manifest Destiny throughout artwork, the most famous painting is called American Progress by John Gast. How else are we seeing Manifest Destiny today?

What about the justifications for expansion in Palestine? A diverse group of people who are indigenous to the lands of Palestine have existed for time immemorial. People of various cultures and various religions including Islam, Judaism, and Christianity co-existed with each other (just to name a few). Only relatively recently, in the late 1800s, did the nation of Israel come to exist, largely from people who don’t have Indigenous ties to the land of Palestine. Jewish people in Europe have experienced persecution from their governments for centuries and instead of providing reparations and healing, governments like Britain through the Balfour declaration and eventually Germany encouraged a small separatist group of Jews to leave Europe because these European nations were not willing to care for their Jewish citizens. This was the foundation of the political ideology called Zionism. Zionists looked at various places to settle– Cyprus, Argentina, even Ohio! But the group decided on Palestine for the symbolic religious ties to Judaism, knowing this would allow other world superpowers to support the cause. And other world superpowers, like the United States, were quick to get on board to further their own interests in the Middle East. And this allowed Zionist goals to commence. Not only were European jews encouraged to settle in Palestine, Zionists have been vocal and precise since the beginning that this requires exterminating the Indigenous population of the lands who already lived there. 

As you move forward throughout this run, we want to remind you that expansion projects don’t happen because a religion requires them to happen. Manifest Destiny is not Christianity. And Zionism is not Judaism. But religions have been co-opted in both cases to serve as justifications for violence.

Station 2: Tactics of Colonization

Because genocide is ongoing, tactics of ethnically cleansing people from their homelands range from overt violence, to more insidious tactics of destroying cultural and familial ties. 

The history of the United States is full of experimental tactics of genocide to displace Indigenous communities from their cultural and spiritual lifeways. Under the saying, Kill the Indian, Save the Man, Native children were kidnapped from their homes and taken to government funded, Christian boarding schools to assimilate kids to white settler lifeways. Kids experienced sexual abuse and violent disciplinary actions were often killed and left in unmarked graves at these schools. Here in the rocky mountain west and in the plains, buffalo, or the American Bison, were systematically killed to not only rid Native tribal nations from food sources, but also significant cultural knowledge and lifeways. 

In Palestine, we see how Israel has mirrored these genocidal tactics of cultural and spiritual warfare. Like the buffalo, olive groves in Palestine have deep cultural meanings and are a food source that have been and still are overtly targeted by settlers and military warfare. 

Today, in both Palestine and here on Turtle Island, we see human constructed walls– borders– that separate communities. In Palestine, this is the Wall of Apartheid that was built around the West Bank. Bethlehem, the city where Jesus was born is surrounded by this apartheid wall that was constructed to restrict Palestinian movement… to wall people in. This apartheid wall also violates many international laws. The US/Mexico wall was constructed to restrict movement in the same matter. Tribal nations have been fully divided by this wall. We’re seeing this in Tucson, Arizona where the Tohono O'odham nation has been split by the border wall, with sacred cultural sites being destroyed in the process, and has restricted movement of tribal members to cross freely to be with family and exist freely on their traditional homelands. 

Station 3: Genocide Today

We often think of genocide as something that happened in the past, especially against Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island. But tactics of genocide often just morph while violence still occurs. Tactics today in the United States have continued violence towards tribal nations on the margins, outside of the mainstream eye. Today, tribal lands are still being diminished. For example, in Wyoming, we saw that in 2017, a whole city was taken from tribal control even though it is located within the Wind River Reservation. This city is called Riverton. In Montana, the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians was only just federally recognized in 2019 but the nation still doesn’t have its own land mass.

The Crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples (or MMIP) is gaining traction as a movement but disparities are still happening. MMIP happens at multiple levels such as violence from governmental policies, between people, and intrapersonal violence. For example, we see that in Montana, Native people make up only 6% of the population but around 25% of the jails and prison populations. Nationally, we see that federal policies stop tribal governments from persecuting non-Native people who come onto reservations to commit violence against or murder tribal members. And victims are often children, women, and/or trans Indigenous people. Intrapersonal violence looks like the fact that Native community members in Montana are disproportionately overrepresented in suicide deaths. We mentioned that genocidal tactics don’t happen in a vacuum. The disproportionate rate of violence towards Indigenous people in the United States is a result of centuries of ongoing colonization.

Today, in Palestine, we are seeing countless videos of Palestinians being massacred in Gaza. The media presents this violence as starting on October 7th, 2023. But again, genocide doesn’t happen in a vacuum. This violence is a result of decades of direct and indirect violence on Palestinians. But to give some numbers for what we’re seeing today– conservative estimates of the death toll in Gaza are over 52,000 lives. But this number doesn’t account for disease, starvation, or even being buried by rubble from falling buildings that were bombed. In June, a peer reviewed journal recorded that the death toll is closer to 186,000. Today, it’s hard to know because agencies that can accurately record information have been destroyed. The West Bank, which is 30 miles away from Gaza, is facing increased settler violence. People from across the world are being recruited to create a settlement on Palestinian lands and violently displace Palestinians from their homes. Israeli real estate events have been and continue to popup across the United States (and world). Just look up myisraelhome.com

Station 4: Resistance Today

We hope that this run has given you space to feel frustration, sadness, confusion, grief. But we don’t want to end with those feelings. Palestinians and Indigenous people of Turtle Island are constantly reminding us that hope exists. That joy exists. That resistance exists. That healing is on the horizon. 

Today on Turtle Island, we’re seeing tribal nations fight to maintain their homelands and restore ecological systems– like bringing back buffalo to tribal communities and resisting the creation of pipelines. Tribal nations are also gaining back tribal lands– from buy back programs to restoring sacred sites through policy measures. We are seeing Indigenous warriors fight to keep their loved ones safe and for the world to never forget those who are lost to violence. The MMIP movement reminds us all that colonization is still happening. But we all can come together to heal as a people. 

Today, Palestinians have a voice unlike before through the use of social media. Palestinians are able to share their stories and unveil the atrocities that have been occurring for decades. These videos also share culture through language, through clothes like the thobe and kufiya, food like hummus and baklava, and through singing and dancing the Dabke. 

Ending on a note of joy and resistance isn’t to encourage us to forget this experience. Instead, we hope that as you have moved your body, you have been truly able to feel it all. And we hope that you can feel a commitment to resisting the ongoing genocides happening across the world, from Turtle Island to Palestine. Even though genocide is ongoing, genocide does not have to be the status quo. There are companies right here in Bozeman that contribute to ongoing genocide and we have consumer power to let our voices be known. Here is a list of targeted companies from the BDS movement (which stands for Boycott Divest and Sanction). While there are many more companies that invest in genocide past this list, this is a strategically curated list of companies that if we all actively resist spending our money and time at, we can make a real difference and show that Bozemanites are against genocide!

We also invite you to get more involved with the groups that put this event on: The MMIP Student Association, Montana 4 Palestine, and Run Queer Bozeman. Supporting these groups can keep you in the know for any next action steps. We have seen today that tactics of genocide on Turtle Island and Palestine are connected. We honor and celebrate and grieve those who have been murdered by genocidal violence in Montana, on Turtle Island, in Palestine and across the world. Thank you for showing up today and taking time to move your body and we hope you feel empowered through this act of resistance and continue making your own connections, building community, and finding ways to plug into healing and resistance.

Thank you all so much for participating. As a reminder, donations will go directly to families in Palestine and here on Turtle Island who are affected by colonial violence. Your donation matters and there is still time to continue sending funds.

We would love to hear your thoughts about the event. Please share about your experience here! 

Thank you again so much for attending this event. It was a really special experience bringing all of our groups together in an organic and intentional way. Be sure to stay up to date by following each of our group on social media:

@runqueerbzn

@msu_mmipsa

@mt4palestine

If you have any photos from the event be sure to tag us all and share #FromTurtleIslandToPalestine

With love and solidarity,

MMIPSA, RQB, MT4P

Liberation Now! Free Palestine! No More Stolen Relatives! Land Back! No Pride in Genocide!